Paula Mcdonald

Paula McDonald is a Materials Engineer for rockets used in Missile Defense applications. She currently works for Raytheon after spending 15 years at Aerojet Rocketdyne. She holds a Six Sigma Blackbelt and specializes in various critical high-temperature materials, composites, adhesives, and ablative insulation materials.

Paula holds a Bachelors’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Davis. She has been a SWE leader for over 12 years, including the Council of Representatives, Region A Treasurer, and Sacramento Valley Section President. As Region A Treasurer, she helped establish their first portfolio during the worst market of a generation, which was held through the recovery. The extraordinary gains enabled the endowment of the Golden West Region Legacy Scholarship. She is also a talented presenter that has led several sessions at SWE Local and Annual Conferences and was a keynote speaker for Evening with Industry. She is excited to apply this experience in her first year serving the SWE Board of Trustees.

Paula enjoys traveling, music & theater, and exploring nature. She is a devoted momgineer of a six-year-old boy and has been married for 14 years to an engineering executive.